MMRG 7-town mixer discusses town, community forests

UNION — The Moose Mountains Regional Greenways seventh annual Seven Town Mixer featured guest speakers including Barbara Richter, executive director of New Hampshire Association of Conservation Commissions, and Charlie Bridges, chair of the Birch Ridge Community Forest Steering Committee. The focus on town and community forests attracted a crowd of a dozen Conservation Commissioners and community members who were interested.

Richter spoke about town forests which are authorized by New Hampshire law, established by town vote and managed by a Town Forest Committee made up of citizens appointed by the town’s select board. She shared results of the recent Town Forest Inventory conducted by the Northern Forest Center and University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension. The inventory found that state communities generate $146 million annually in economic benefits from the 180,000 acres of community-owned undeveloped forests, fields and wetlands. Benefits include forestry products, increasing tourism and recreational opportunities, water quality protection and other ecosystem services.

Bridges spoke about community forests, which was made possible by a grant from the Community Forest Program of the U.S. Forest Service. Several New Hampshire towns have established their own community forests through the federal grant program, with help from nonprofits such as the Trust for Public Land, the Open Space Institute, and the Northern Forest Center. Errol, with a population of 300, acquired the 7,000-acre 13-Mile Woods Community Forest and used several years of timber sale proceeds to pay off the loan. 

Bridges concluded with a description of how the 2,000-acre Birch Ridge Community Forest was successfully conserved by a partnership with Southeast Land Trust, Merrymeeting Lake Association and MMRG, and grants from the Community Forest Program, New Hampshire Land and Community Heritage Program, New Hampshire DES Aquatic Resources Mitigation Program, the Town of New Durham, and individual donors. MMLA instigated the conservation effort, SELT is the landowner, and MMRG holds the conservation easement on the property. The property is open to the public, with best access along State Snowmobile Corridor 22, with trail maintenance by the Powder Mill Snowmobile Club.

For more information about Moose Mountains Regional Greenways, visit mmrg.info.